


Chasms Just as Deep in Daylight

by emberfire411



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, Pining, Rapunzel (mentioned) - Freeform, Unrequited Love, the angsty inner monologue missing because Disney are cowards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:02:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23819650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emberfire411/pseuds/emberfire411
Summary: She wants to go chase her destiny.  It's a half truth.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Kudos: 56





	Chasms Just as Deep in Daylight

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to give the Tangled series a shot because hey, it's quarantine. Now two weeks later here I am. Writing ficlets. Half an hour after I'm done with the finale. Oops.

“I don’t want you to leave because of me.”

The satchel snaps closed. There’s embroidery on the inner flap of a flower, done in bright thread on an afternoon Cassandra wasn’t looking. Once a mild annoyance, it’s now her only possession she won’t let anyone else near. “Bold of you to think I would ever take _you_ into account when making choices, Fitzherbert.”

He gives an awkward laugh, meant to try and steer the conversation back instead of showing any actual discomfort (though he was, uncomfortable). Eugene has been doing it a lot lately, ever since... _since_. Trying to get conversations to go in a direction Cassandra isn’t ready to go yet. “Aha...no, but I’m serious here.”

“I know.” She throws the bag over her shoulder and turns to face him. Her former room has only a whisper of an identity, shiny new stone floors and patched up cracks in the walls where darkness incarnate once pierced them. “And you don’t need to worry. This isn’t about you, and it’s not forever. I’ll still come back to visit.”

“Will you though?”

She opens her mouth to start arguing with him, but no sound comes out. Because she wants to come back - part of her doesn’t even want to go in the first place. But she’s done so much wrong by Corona, by the people there, that it frightens her if she thinks about it for too long. There are nightmares, tangled sheets and waking up in a cold sweat and she is too _close_. Too close to a place that feels like home but can’t be anymore. To the place where she was so different, so lost in darkness for so long that there are times she catches reflections in a mirror and doesn’t recognize the woman staring back.

Too close to the one thing she wants more than anything in the world. It’s bad for her heart, broken into tiny fragments in her chest. They keep trying to knit back together, but fail every time Cassandra hears the thump of bare feet in the hall.

“I will.”

It’s a lie. An obvious one, because the look on Eugene’s face says as much. “It’s gonna break her heart.”

Once upon a time, Cassandra might have believed that. But she knows now it isn’t the case. Rapunzel can survive without her. She’d been doing it for months. It’s what they both deserved, in very different ways.

Out loud though, she huffs and puts on a brave face. “Oh, stop being dramatic. She’ll be fine. She has _you_.” 

Cassandra goes past Eugene in the doorway and down the hall. He says nothing, but he doesn’t need to.


End file.
